Dwyane Wade to Pat Riley: "Your Legacy Continues To Live On Through All Of Us"

The three-time champion had a message for the Miami Heat's president on his 80th birthday.

Jan 14, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat president Pat Riley (R) shows former player Dwayne Wade (L) a bobble head while announcing that a statue in the likeness of Wade will be erected outside the arena in 2025, during halftime of the game between the Miami Heat and the Charlotte Hornets at Kaseya Center. / Jasen Vinlove - USA TODAY Sports

Miami Heat president Pat Riley is celebrating his 80th birthday today.

From one basketball Hall-of-Famer to another, former Heat superstar Dwyane Wade posted a birthday message for Riley.

“Pat, man, I'm in Miami right now, as I send this message, you can see the palm trees through my glasses," Wade said. "I just want to say happy 80th birthday. Your legacy continues to live on through all of us."

Wade, who won three championships with Pat Riley, made sure that Heat fans around the world would see his message for him. Surely, this is a welcome sight for the Heat organization, now 29-40 on the season, with their losing streak extending to nine games last night.

"We mirror images of you in all the ways. We love you. Enjoy your day. Happy birthday, brother.”

Riley has been a part of nine different NBA championships since the 1970s as a player, coach and executive. On top of that, he's has been involved in about a quarter of the league's Finals, having made it to 19 of them.

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ESPN Personality Makes Bold Proclamation On Pat Riley's 80th Birthday

While Pat Riley is not the sole reason for the Heat’s nine-game losing streak, he has contributed significantly to constructing a mediocre roster.

It may be too early to tell if sending Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors was a mistake, but several of the reasons he wanted to leave the Heat are related to Riley. The most important reason has been an inability to acquire talent from trades or free agency.

The only free agent signing the Heat made in the 2024 offseason was a one-year $3.3 million deal. They believed Terry Rozier''s building chemistry in the off-season was a massive move based on decent production last year. This has not been the case, as Rozier has had one of the worst seasons of his career and is considerably worse than how he played for the Heat after the 2024 trade deadline. 

Despite losing in the first round in the previous season, the Heat believed they had enough to contend with the core group of Butler, Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo, Duncan Robinson, and Erik Spoelstra, who has made three Eastern Conference Finals and two Finals appearances, in the last five years.

On ESPN's First Take, Stephen A. Smith believes the Heat’s recent struggles are signs Pat Riley should retire.

“There’s a lot of people that would love to come to Miami, one would think,” Smith said. “But LeBron departed from there, Kevin Durant didn’t come there, and Damian Lillard, you couldn’t get there. Then, you made a colossal mistake. We already heard Dwyane Wade’s story all over social media about you messing with LeBron’s chocolate chip cookies. And when you look a guy like Jimmy Butler in the face and say, ‘We ain’t moving you,’ forcing him to become a bit truculent to force his way out, it looks like an organization that you’re not inclined to gravitate to.”